Volunteer Week

May 27, 2014

What a week!!!  It was both exhausting and rewarding - the village turned out to be a collection of houses smattered throughout the hill side, food was rice and potatoes three meals a day, English was close to nonexistent, wake up time was 5:00 am, witch doctors roamed the neighborhood, my house was a retreat for giant spiders, and yet students asked us every day to do art with them, teachers cried when it was our final day,  and our host families begged us to stay. 

This cute 4 day old goat sucked my fingers, while I seriously started to wonder what I had gotten myself into!

Here’s the grandma, Anita, and the mother, Sangita, (she’s my age - 32) making dinner of dal bhat - rice, lentils and potatoes.  The whole ceiling above is blackened from the open fire.  Not the best kitchen for those with asthma.

My feather soft bed for the week.  I slept right on top of that pink sheet . .  on top of the wool blanket . . . on top of the plywood . . . when I could fall asleep.

That’s beaten rice (literally rice that has been mashed into flakes) with potatoes and soya balls - the school fed us lunch every day.  Usually eaten without a spoon.

Play dough making just like our ancestors use to.  

Here’s a picture of the Shree Kali Devi Secondary School, where Jenn and I volunteered for the week. 

Here are class 1/2 kids making rainbows and learning their colors in English.

School is optional here (for both children and staff) so the numbers varied every day.

Here is the principal admiring the handiwork of class 5 - they are making sun catchers out of transparencies and fabric paint.

The school morning starts with calisthenics and then the grades march to their individual classes.

Here is class 10 working on sun catchers too.

Here is the “village” of Lalitpur.

We taught classes the ABC song and had them make the alphabet with play dough.

Note the new rainbows hanging in the classroom.

The sun catcher final project with class 5.

Our walk to school in the morning.

Still walking to school! - I have yet to cross that meadow and climb up the other side.

Here is play group coloring the alphabet with their teachers.

Apparently it’s the first time they have seen anyone cut tape.

Jenn and I hung the alphabet they colored and the numbers in their classroom for play group.

Here’s Jenn and I with play group - I think they loved having their art work on the wall.

The sweet teachers lounge - where we had a 30 min break each day for lunch at 1pm.  The school day starts at 10am and ends at 3 or 4 pm - depending on your grade.

A view of the house from the outside.  There was electricity for a few hours every day . . . usually. . . although no schedule as to when it would or wouldn’t work.

Class 8 working on bubble painting and a name poem.  They were without a teacher the whole week we were there.

Here is what happens when there aren’t teachers in a class - and the school is short teachers every day!

Here is the family I stayed with - Pramala is taking the picture so imagine another 12 year old girl in the picture.

RING - goes the morning bel!

Play group loved waving hi and bye - they normally say namaste and put their hands in a prayer position.

The entire school gave us a farewell ceremony.

We were draped in flower leis and Buddhist scarves - a sign of an important person departing.

The families also gave us a blessing and wished us well with a small ceremony involving fruit, words I couldn’t understand, and tika marks.

Party in Pokhara

May 26, 2014

We are finally back in Kathmandu after a week of resting in Pokhara, an amazing white water rafting trip, and then another day of down time before heading back to home base. It was a treat to be out of busy Kathmandu with all the cars and scooters and general madness, but we are happy to be back with all the day time fun and night time parties. 

 

Omar and I rented a scooter for a day to drive around the lake and visit the International Mountain Museum.

We saw a giant Tibetan mandala made of sand - this is a close up so you can see the detail that goes into these mandalas.  Covered by a glass case so klutzes like me don’t accidentally sneeze while looking at them.

The museum had a collection of old mountain climbing gear, a section on geology, a section on the local tribes of Nepal and one dedicated to past climbers.

There was also a section dedicated to the yeti!  My favorite!

There was a 31 ft. replica of Mt. Manaslu so that everyone can summit a peak at least once in their life!

That’s the town Pokhara in the background and Lake Fewa.  It looks a lot cleaner than it is - definitely not a swimming lake!

We joined an Isreli tour group for an epic 3 day rafting trip.

Vegetarian meals and beach side camping - what more could I want?

We had two rafts of people and a third filled with camping supplies and food.  Of course my raft managed to capsize and we ended up floating through at least one rapid.

A green butterfly - who knew???

Omar and I at the end of our 3 day rafting trip on the Kaligandaki River - with water straight from the glacier melt!

Fun murals abound in Kathmandu!

Omar and I with our new friends Nosh and Sarah from Bangladash (we spent the day riding back to Kathmandu with them on the bus) and our friend Jenn (we trekked with her for a few days on the Annapurna Circuit)

There is tons of live music in Kathmandu and some of the bands aren’t half bad!

Annapurna Circuit, The Last Episode

So we rented mountain bikes in the town of Muktinath from Mustang Mountainbikes and headed downhill... mostly. We had a lot of fun whether it was terrorizing small towns that are a dream to ride through, or screaming down high plains and salt flats at high speeds.

Here are the girls sneaking out from under a Gompa.  Inside, you can stand at full height and enjoy religious paintings.

Here are the girls racing each other on parallel roads.  It is hard to tell, but this is actually a steep descent.

Here is Ali cruising town like a pro! (Note the face mask for dust protection.)

Rhiannon . . . not so much!  :)

Cruising down rocky roads and steep cliffs made for hair raising excitment.

We took our time to do side trips and explore lakes and hidden forests.

As we dropped elevation the scenery became greener and lush. It was like riding in a magical forest.

But it was very exhausting none the less! Even Jurian, the owner of the bikes was feeling it.

Don’t you love when water buffalo come to say hi during your lunch break?

The road continued downhill almost endlessly.  It was blasted out of the side of the hill with loose rocks, mud holes and water crossings to keep it exciting.

We met other bike riders and all stopped for a break at the last waterfall before our ride came to and end.

Jeeps provide local transportation, but the bikes seemed safer. Maybe he drove down the river to pick those funny looking plants?

After the amazing ride and a break at the Tatopani hot springs we had to start hiking again, and this time up to Poon Hill.

Talk about slow food movement. All our food was local and as far as I can tell, organic. 

Forest nymph abound. Aren’t they cute?

Eventually, we made it to the top of Poon Hill. Can you spot Ali taking in the view on the bench below?

Since Rhiannon had to leave us in Tatopani, Jennifer offered to be our new trekking friend. She fit in right away!

I had to! How often do you get a selfie with a goat?

As we dropped from Poon Hill we decended into lush rain forests with wild orchids everywhere.

Last shot of the Annapurna circuit. The vegetation was back and so were the rivers. It was so tempting to take a dip in those swimming holes. Twenty-one days after we started, we completed the traditional Annapurna circuit and loved it!  We made our way to Pokhara where our legs would be sore for almost two weeks.